Tag Archives: creativity

This blog post about “mental house cleaning” is written by Reverend Jeanne Hoffman. Rev. Jeanne spoke these words during her Creative Talk in the month of January at the Center for Spiritual Living Granada Hills.

Ernest Holmes said: “Your final emancipation will be written by your own hand.”

That is the good news and the bad news! I have to get started! And what better time to do that than now?

I just love the month of January. It represents Beginners’ Mind – a fresh start, a new year, a new book filled with plenty of blank pages and a clean white canvas ready for new tubes of paint…..

It is also a time for me to begin cleaning. Not just early spring cleaning, but the most important cleaning I ever do: the cleaning of my mind and my thoughts.

Something that is a helpful gift to me is to be on a retreat of some kind. A retreat where there is plenty of silence, and I am a “retreat-ant,” not the facilitator. It helps me keep my cup overflowing and gives Creativity free reign.

I am doubly blessed this January! Last weekend I did a poetry retreat with David Whyte at Asilomar, and, yesterday, I did a contemplative writing workshop in San Gabriel. Beautiful spaces with beautiful people, accessing what is deep and good within, lifting thoughts and often changing them.

What would you think if you were only one thought away from changing your life? Here and now I declare that January is my month for mental house cleaning.

I’m ready to sweep, scrub and flush away the thoughts that linger in the recesses of my mind that negate my life,

AND

I am ready to allow my creative self, my true self, to throw caution to the wind, ignore what is tried and true, and express something untried and maybe not yet true! (But then I won’t know that until I try…!)

January is my month to hit the refresh button and remember that my true nature is creative; I cleanse every thought from my mind that keeps me imprisoned when it whispers in my inner ear that I cannot do or be what I am called to do or to be.

I invite you to join me by mixing unlikely colors on your canvas and writing words of praise, love, and compassion on the pages of our own hearts, our own lives, those blank pages offered to us for this new year.

Please repeat after me – with resounding vigor and enthusiasm:

“I am possible!”

“I matter!”

“I surrender to the beautiful Creation within me!”

“The Universe only says yes!”

And so it is!

This post is a Five Minute Talk presented on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night at the Granada Hills Center for Spiritual Living. Talks are given by Licensed CSL Practitioners who invest at least four years in learning and applying these concepts and ideas in their daily life. For more topics like this one, please join us at our Center for one of our Sunday services or for our Wednesday evening service at 7 PM.

This blog post is derived from a Five Minute Talk presented by Reverend Jeanne Hoffman at the Granada Hills Center for Spiritual Living.

Today I observe how I court the Beloved, for I am reminded with every breath that the Beloved has courted me and called me to live my life authentically.

Rumi says it so well in the first stanza of his poem, Music…

For 60 years I have been forgetful,

Every minute, but not for a second

Has this flowing toward me stopped or slowed.

I deserve nothing. Today I recognize

That I am the guest the mystics talk about.

I play this living music for my host.

Everything today is for the host.

–Rumi

Rumi also writes at length about the Silence – that space in which we make our divine appointments with the Host – with God – and, not only do we make these appointments, we keep them, allowing nothing to be more important.

There are three things that come so clearly to my mind that my fingers cannot write them down fast enough! Here is how I attend to Spirit so Spirit can attend to me:

Make time several times a day to experience Silence, that Field of Possibility that I hunger for, just as It hungers for me

Wake up and pay attention to what is right in front of me, now; even though I have goals and plans and aspirations, my work is in front of me now

Saying yes to what I am called to do. It is sometimes difficult, and I might not want to do or be whatever “it is.” And, if it is for good, it is for God, and I get to discover something about myself – an illusive piece of the puzzle for which I have been searching

It begins and ends in the Silence. And, as Rumi says,”The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you.”

Back by popular demand, Anton Mizerak and Laura Berryhill will perform at the Center for Spiritual Living Granada Hills on Friday, April 10th at 7 PM.

Mount Shasta keyboardist, harmonica and tabla player Anton Mizerak and singer Laura Berryhill will present an evening of Celtic songs, transformational healing music, and chants from around the world. Listen to a sample in the video below:

A love offering will be taken at the concert. Park on the street or in our lot directly behind our building.

Please join us in the sanctuary of our Center! Anton and Laura are two of our most popular performers.

Prosperity isn’t just about money. Sure, we can be prosperous with a large bank account, but we can also have prosperity in relationships, living spaces, our creative endeavors and more.

For example, have you always wanted to write that book, start a new business, live in a new home, have better relationships, and more?

Is your answer, “Yes!”?

So, why aren’t you achieving your dreams? What is holding you back?

Mary Morrissey, best-selling author of No Less Than Greatness and Building Your Field of Dreams, says that what holds us back from living the life of our dreams – a prosperous life – is our paradigms. Paradigms are core beliefs that we grow up with. They come from our family, our society, our friends, and usually they are ingrained in us. They are not easy to change.

So, Mary developed a program called Prosperity Plus. It’s a 10 week program that many spiritual communities and churches use to help their members grow and prosper in ways they couldn’t before. At Prosperity Plus, you watch videos in class and listen to recorded programs during the week. You are assigned a group who supports your goals and objectives for change. With the guided program and the support groups, attendees are able to change their paradigms and achieve the things they’ve been dreaming about.

At the Center for Spiritual Living, we’ve offered Prosperity Plus program in the past. Attendees worked together to increase their prosperity. Some of the results included:

starting a new business

writing a book

a gift of a house from a friend

changing to a more fulfilling job with more income

finding a new and meaningful relationship

On Tuesday, June 24th, at 7 PM, the Center for Spiritual Living Granada Hills is starting the Prosperity Plus II program. Anyone who wants more prosperity in their life can join us. You don’t have to have taken the first Prosperity Plus program. So take that first step and sign up for more prosperity in your life today. Email or call our Center to reserve your spot in class at 818-363-8136.